Gunman Shoots 2 at Arkansas Military Recruitment Center

[sfc_darrel]

Gunman Shoots 2 at Arkansas Military Recruitment Center

Monday , June 01, 2009


DEVELOPING: A gunman opened fire Monday at an army recruitment center in Little Rock, Ark., killing one army recruiter and seriously wounding another, FOX16.com reported.

A man in a black SUV drove to the recruitment office and began shooting at around 10:19 a.m., a spokesman with the Little Rock police department told FOX News.

The suspect, who immediately fled the scene, was later apprehended approximately four miles from the center with an assault rifle in his vehicle.

Little Rock authorities detected a "suspicious device" inside the vehicle and called a bomb squad to the scene, according to FOX16.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523860,00.html

[David]

AP


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A man with "political and religious motives" killed a soldier just out of basic training and wounded another Monday in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center, police said. The shootings were not believed to be part of a broader scheme.

A police report based on an interview with the suspect says Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, told police he observed two soldiers in uniform, drove up to the recruiting center and started shooting.

"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them," Lt. Terry Hastings told The Associated Press. "That's what he said."

The two soldiers who were shot had completed basic training within the past two weeks and were not regular recruiters, said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office.

William Long, 23, of Conway, died, and Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, was wounded and in stable condition, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said.

Both men were from nearby hometowns and volunteered to work at the recruiting center to attract other locals to the military. "They can show the example, 'Here's where I was, and here is where I am,'" Artis said.

Police arrested Muhammad, 23, along an interstate moments after the shootings at the Army-Navy Career Center in a shopping center in west Little Rock.

Muhammad had converted to Islam at some point in his life and interviews with police show he "probably had political and religious motives for the attack," the police chief said.

Muhammad, previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, was not part of a larger group nor was his attack part of a larger conspiracy, Thomas said.

"We believe that it's associated with his disagreement over the military operations," the police chief said.

Thomas said Muhammad would be charged with first-degree murder, plus 15 counts of committing a terroristic act. Thomas said those counts result from the gunfire occurring near other people.

The accused shooter's father, Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tenn., hung up on a reporter who called about his son's arrest Monday night.

Witnesses told police that a man inside a black vehicle pulled up outside the recruiting center and opened fire about 10:30 a.m. Long fell onto the sidewalk outside the center while Ezeagwula was able to crawl toward its door.

Police said an assault rifle and other weapons were found in the vehicle when Muhammad was arrested.

Jim Richardson, the manager at a drug store around the corner from the Army-Navy center, said people at the store didn't realize anything was amiss until hearing sirens outside.

"Nobody heard any gunshots," Richardson said.

Steven Johnson, an 18-year-old recruit, was on his way to take a qualifying test when he found police cars at the center. By early afternoon, Johnson was waiting patiently outside the yellow police tape.

"I'm going to check and see if they're all right," he said.





Police inspect the scene of a fatal shooting outside a military recruitment office in a Little Rock, Ark., shopping center Monday, June 1, 2009. A new soldier helping to attract others to the military was shot and killed outside the office Monday and a second soldier was wounded, and a suspect was arrested, police said.

[revwardoc]

First force feed the asshat some good pulled pork, smear him with lard, execute him, then feed him to pigs and toss their droppings in a landfill.

[David]

AP


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Muslim convert who already was under federal investigation pleaded not guilty Tuesday in what police called a likely "political and religious" attack that killed a young soldier at a military recruiting center.

Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, of Little Rock, was charged in Monday's death of Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway outside an Army-Navy Career Center in a west Little Rock shopping center. He pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge and was ordered held without bail.

A prosecutor said Muhammad admitted shooting Long and another soldier "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past."

An FBI-led joint terrorism task force based in the southern United States has been investigating Muhammad since he returned to the United States from Yemen, a law enforcement official said. The suspect had been arrested and jailed in Yemen at some point for using a Somali passport, the official said. The time of that arrest was not immediately clear.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss the investigation.

An FBI spokesman in Little Rock did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Harris said no decision has been made on whether to pursue federal charges against Muhammad. "We're consulting with a lot of people on what, if any, charges can be filed against him," Harris said.

Both Arkansas and federal court systems permit executions for capital crimes.

Long and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Ark., had recently completed basic training and had never seen combat. Ezeagwula was hospitalized in stable condition.

Police Chief Stuart Thomas said Muhammad, previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, was a convert to Islam and was not part of any broader scheme to attack the American military.

Interviews with police show he "probably had political and religious motives for the attack," the chief said.

"We believe that it's associated with his disagreement over the military operations," Thomas said.

Police Sgt. Cassandra Davis said Tuesday it wasn't known when Muhammad began planning the attack.

Deputy Prosecutor Scott Duncan said Muhammad told investigators that "he would have killed more soldiers had they been in the parking lot." Long and Ezeagwula were targeted as they stood outside the recruiting center smoking cigarettes.

Muhammad did not speak during the brief hearing before Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle.

John Rehrauer, spokesman for the Pulaski County jail, said the department was handling Muhammad as it does other high-profile cases.

"He is in some protective custody, in a higher-security unit in a cell by himself," Rehrauer said.

He said he didn't know of any threats against Muhammad and said jailers did not believe he was in any greater danger than previous high-profile people handled at the prison.

The two soldiers had recently completed basic training and had volunteered for a program to recruit others to the military, said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office.

"They can show the example: 'Here's where I was, and here is where I am,'" Artis said.

A police report said Muhammad told investigators he observed two soldiers in uniform, drove up to the recruiting center and began shooting.

"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them," Lt. Terry Hastings told The Associated Press. "That's what he said."

Police arrested Muhammad along a highway moments after the shootings. Police said an assault rifle and other weapons were found in his vehicle.

In addition to the capital murder count, Muhammad is accused of committing 16 counts of a terroristic act. Thomas said most additional counts resulted from the gunfire occurring near other people.

The suspect's father, Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tenn., hung up on a reporter who called about his son's arrest Monday night.

[darrels joy]

Lawyer: Arkansas shooting suspect 'brainwashed'


UPDATED: 02:24 AM EDT 06.05.09

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CNN)
The Tennessee man suspected in Monday's attack on a recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, was brainwashed and tortured while imprisoned in Yemen, his lawyer said Thursday.

"My client is a young man, I think, brainwashed," attorney Jim Hensley told CNN. "What else could be explained for a young man who's a true American, plays football, helps his grandmother and mows the lawns of his neighbors? Comes back and then finds himself in this situation? That is not a normal situation in my book."

Abdulhakim Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, is charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Arkansas.


The 23-year-old convert to Islam has pleaded not guilty. But, according to court records, he told police that he had "political and religious" motives for the shooting.

In September 2007, Muhammad left Tennessee State University in Nashville, where he was studying business, and traveled to Yemen to teach English to children and to learn Arabic.

There, "he felt at peace with these people," even marrying a Yemeni, Hensley said.

But things began to change when his client was detained for a minor visa violation in Yemen and sent to prison, where he was housed with radical Islamic fundamentalists, Hensley said.


In November 2008, Muhammad was arrested in the port city of Aden for overstaying his visa and deported two months later in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy, a Yemeni official said.

There is disagreement about the time he was incarcerated. The lawyer said Muhammad told him he had served four months in prison.

Hensley said Muhammad told him that, during the last two weeks he was held, he was deprived of sleep and food and "was slapped around a little bit," enduring beatings on the backs of his legs.

During Muhammad's time in the prison, an FBI agent visited him not as an ally but as an interrogator, Hensley said.
http://m.cnn.com/cnn/lt_ne/lt_ne/detail/316675

[SuperScout]

Another example of the "religion of peace." When are you going to learn, America, that we don't need these Muslims in America? Pardon me for showing my redneck, but I simply remember that all the attacks on America and Americans are being made by Muslims. Deport every last one of them.

[David]

AP


CONWAY, Ark. – A clergyman has eulogized a 23-year-old Army private killed outside an Arkansas recruiting center as a "seeker" who needed to find himself.

About 200 mourners packed the Harlan Park Baptist Church in Conway on Monday for the funeral of William Long. Monday was the day he was supposed to deploy to South Korea.

Long was killed June 1 outside the Army-Navy Career Center in west Little Rock, where he had volunteered to tell others about his military experience.

A Muslim convert allegedly out to avenge mistreatment of Muslims pleaded not guilty to capital murder.

Pastor John Harrington described Long as sharp and gifted.

[David]

AP


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center said Tuesday that he doesn't consider the killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.

"I do feel I'm not guilty," Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. "I don't think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason."

Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, of Conway had just completed basic training and was volunteering at the west Little Rock recruiting office before starting an assignment in South Korea. He was shot dead June 1 while smoking a cigarette outside the building, and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded.

"Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally," Muhammad said. He called it "a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military."

In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer's claim that he had been "radicalized" in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually "very good Muslim brothers."

He also said he didn't specifically plan the shootings that morning.

"It's been on my mind for awhile. It wasn't nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know," said Muhammad, who was arrested on a highway shortly after the attack.

Prosecutor Larry Jegley, who on Monday won a gag order in the case, declined to comment specifically on Muhammad's remarks.

"I asked for the gag order to protect Mr. Muhammad's right for a fair trial," Jegley said. "I've never had a situation like this with a gag order and I'm sure Mr. Muhammad's attorney will take care of it."

Muhammad, 23, said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. "For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate," he said.

He said the U.S. military would never treat Christians and their Scriptures in the same manner.

"U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don't believe in turning the other cheek," he said.

Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said "I didn't know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did," especially desecrating the Quran.

Last week, defense lawyer Jim Hensley said his client had been tortured and "radicalized" in a Yemeni prison after entering the country to teach English. He was held there for immigration violations, and Yemeni officials have denied mistreatment.

"Those claims ... are all lies," Muhammad said Tuesday. "That never happened in Yemen. The officials dealt with me in a gentle way."

Hensley said Tuesday that any information spread by any of the parties since Monday morning would violate the gag order and declined to say whether he would advise his client to remain silent pending a trial.

[SEATJERKER]

...

..."He also said he didn't specifically plan the shootings that morning".

...And They wonder why "we", The average American Joe, and Jane sees the muslim world as full blown, off the wall crazed, do anything to further doom, waste products of life,...

...It really is time to totally rearm America, yes with firearms, so that the Average Joe, and Jane can defend themselves against the scurge that has infiltrated our society. It has come down to criminals, and terrorists walking free among us choosing to open fire with more then likely, an illeagal one,...

...

[reconeil]

Hey,...you've certainly got me convinced.

Still and sorry for Us All since unfortunately Islam's best & most powerfull friend on earth and/or President Barack Hussein Obama II or Jr. doesn't think similarly,...which is even further
unfortunate since: "His Barackness" calls-ALL-The-Shots in America. NO ONE ELSE!

Plus, Barack much like a foolish Mullah Flanagan would have all believe that: "There are no such as Bad (Muslims)". Damn,...what a phoney Christian or Muslim Mole/Plant!

Neil